Long Live Legion

TJ, Very well put. And if you play past those 2 series no one in their right mind should want to play showcase at that time, you are very close to playing in the State championship. I think in Area III by the time you reach round 3 there is only 4 teams left. That means 16 are done for the season.

The other confusion is that some teams don't allow dual participation. That is an individual team decision.

 

Exactly Tools, if you are fortunate enough to play on a very strong legion team that goes deep in the playoffs, then not only are you "probably" having a very good time, but the deeper you get in the playoffs even legion critics will admit that scouts come watch the better teams, and obviously the better teams get more exposure through being seen and talked about.

The argument that the legion dual participation rule don't allow kids to showcase just don't fly very high, because to be honest the rule only affects the majority of legion teams for a couple weeks or in most cases only one week of the first round of playoffs.

p.s. If a specific legion coach has his own version of a dual participation rule for his own team, of course that is an entirely different situation. Two things to consider in this case, 1- you have to respect the coach's decision,,, but also 2- most coaches recognize an excellent opportunity for a young ballplayer (ex: state games participation is allowed by every legion coach I know). Obviously some coaches may have different opinions about a kid missing every weekend of legion ball to play somewhere else. Someone mentioned legion plays mostly on weekends,,,,, ??? I don't know where your from, because in Area 3 our legion teams play 5-6 nights a week, so with 5-6 games a week I can sort of understand a coach not being excited about missing one of his key players every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Personally I think if you expect to play legion Mon-Thurs, but showcase every weekend, then thats not very fair to the legion team and you just need to make a decision one way or another. Just my 2 cents.

 

Guys, I agree with everything you've said, but I'm reaching the opposite conclusion. Your point is that this affects only a small amount number of players - I agree - but why screw those small number of players ??? The player I mentioned wanted to play legion, just wanted to attend a major showcase the week after the cutoff which was also a week before legion playoffs. His legion team had clinched the playoffs, but the Post had never progressed past the first 2 rounds of the playoffs in the last 10 years. So figuring that Legion was going to end soon, he played in the showcase event making him inelligible to play in the Legion playoffs. His Legion team went to the 4th round, and I believe with him could have gone further.

I'm sure if he would have KNOWN his Legion team was going to make it to the 4th round, he would not have played showcase, but just based on past history, he assumed that this wouldn't happen. Why make a kid choose between Legion and showcase when the kid wanted and would have played both without any negative effect to either ?

 

legion will continue to get trampled until

dual participation is gone. we have a roster limit for a reason. if you want to take up a roster spot with a dude who may, or may not be there, then that is your right. with the rules the way they are right now, you can have someone not play all year with you and then join you for the playoffs.

also, allowing college freshmen is killing legion. allowing college guys takes at bats and innings away from high school guys. that further pushes them to chicos bail bonds aau travel/showcase cavalcade of stars team.

 

Dual Participation

Dual Participation is allowed during the regular season with the Legion coach's approval. Once Playoffs start Dual Participation is not allowed until the team is eliminated. This should not have much effect on Sr. Legion players since most of them that are good enough have either already playing college ball or signed to play.

 

Its too bad some kids can not participate in Legion because the school they attend is too big and there is no post for them to go to because if the post nearest added that school they would be over their enrollment number. This rule needs to change. Good ballplayers getting left out.

 

The worst part is anytime kids get left out, and all too often I hear these stories. Unfortunately population is growing, schools are being built, and new legion teams are not always forming to keep up. The only solution (and it would have to be passed nationwide) would be to increase the student enrollment limit, which would allow each legion team to include more students.

The flip side of that however, is if each program is allowed to draw from more students, you still have just 18-man rosters, therefore you just have more to get cut. Ex: If I have 6000 students to pick my 18-man roster, instead of only 5000,,, kids will still be left out, by virtue of being cut.

I do understand there are areas left out of legion ball completely today.

 

TJ, I have a couple of problems with the 5000 limit. On our 18 man roster last year, we had 3 players from 3 different HS, the other 15 from 2 other HS. we were did nuts on 5000. I am quite sure some teams checked on us too. Well 2 of those 3 players would not have played Legion anywhere had we not picked them up. This is simalar to the problem he is discussing. Yet over 90% of our roster was made up from 2 HS. Our base school is a large 4A HS, but we could not fileld a team with just our players, too many playing showcase. We actually cut a player from a private school or we would have been over limit. There again no where for him to play. Maybe we should look at private school kids and say that they go under what public school they are suppose to go to, that is how they are determined which team to play for anyway, where they live.

Also, ever try to start a new team, roadblocks at every step. I will leave it at that. Do not want to open that can of worms.

 

Boy you said a mouth full, it is VERY difficult to start a new legion program from scratch, for numerous reasons.

 

but people should not let teams drop as well

The area in which Cougar 10 is based at one time had a legion team but the baseball community in that area let it drop. Post 297 does not receive any funding from the Legion post. The Legion and Jr Legion team remains due to the efforts of some individuals in the community supporting it along with the assistance of a local youth baseball league (with one person graciously donating a lot of time and money to be responsible for running it). This has occured whether these individuals had any kids playing or not.

Post 1 came back in the Raleigh area recently and hopefully it will remain. Agree that with size of schools, it becomes difficult. It was a lot easier a number of years ago when we simply had boundaries (not tied to schools) for the legion team.